THE Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) was passed by Parliament early Tuesday morning.

There has been much scepticism over the new law. During the Emergency in Malaya from 1948 to 1960 various measures were undertaken by the colonial masters and the subsequent rulers of independent Malaya.

Among the notable measures was the introduction of the Internal Security Act (ISA) which was primarily passed to act as a deterent and as a powerful tool to prevent terrorism.

Its primary objective was to provide the authorities the power to detain suspected terrorists and their sympathisers before they could carry out any terrorist activity.

… According to Rohan Gunaratna, the author of the best seller Inside Al-Qaeda, the best way to combat terrorism is by employing “Smart Power”. By this he meant using a combination of soft power as well as hard power when dealing with terrorists.

In an interview at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, he stressed that the repealing of the ISA was a grave mistake.